Watch the Nazi-Themed Sitcom Canceled After One Episode

File under Things That Actually Happened: On September 30, 1990, British Satellite Broadcasting aired a single episode of Heil Honey I'm Home, a Nazi-themed sitcom featuring fictionalized versions of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. The couple inexplicably live in a Berlin apartment building, across the hall from the Jewish couple Arny and Rosa Goldenstein, whose goofy antics infuriate the Führer, leading to weirdly unfunny 1950s-style sitcom setups. In this patently offensive parallel comedy universe, the Hitlers are a typical urban couple, and their biggest challenges are making dinner for British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and surviving the antics of their neighbors. (There is some attention paid to the Munich Agreement referenced in Chamberlain's visit, but solely as a framing device to feed the boss-is-coming-to-dinner style plot.)

While the show is, on one level, a parody of The Honeymooners and its oeuvre, Heil Honey suffers from a killer combo of unfunniness and willful offensiveness (the latter is primarily in its treatment of the Jewish characters, but also all the Nazi salutes played as gags). BSB execs canned the show after the first episode aired, though some reports say as many as seven more were in production at that time.

Like all terrible things, that whole first episode is available on YouTube, if you can stand it. (Honestly, about five minutes will get you the gist of it. There is extremely little redeeming value in this show, aside from knowing that it actually happened.) And in case you had any doubt, the opening message is totally fictional.

"I gotta think nice thoughts: Poland, the Sudetenland..." - TV Adolf Hitler. Seriously, folks—how did this make it to air?

The show ends about five minutes into this next clip. If you stay tuned afterwards, you'll see a few 1990 BSB TV commercials, which are roughly as unfunny as the show itself. The clip ends with an intro to an interview with Salman Rushdie—leading me, yet again, to wonder who was in charge of this programming lineup.

For more deep thoughts on this travesty, check out SplitSider's detailed review. I agree with their central thesis: This show fails because it's not satire—it's just a crappy parody of 1950s sitcoms...with friggin' Hitler as the protagonist. It's just not funny, largely because it fails to comment on its own protagonist's unique position in history. Future TV writers and executives, take note.

Network Awesome also covered this show and pointed out an interesting bit of trivia:

Interestingly, the date Heil Honey I’m Home! aired is the same date that the Munich Agreement was signed and Prime Minister Chamberlain went to Hitler before his “peace in our time” address – September 30. Coincidence?